Reform Movements
United States 1
Roots
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Major economic and social transformations in
America during period 1800-1850.
Not everyone sharing equally in the progress
Some people getting left behind
Response
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Combination anxiety and hopefulness over
changes sweeping America
Belief in human perfectibility
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Frenzy of work and experimentation
Belief in progress
Looking to give meaning to life and lend
shape to society that seemed to be out of
control
Charles G. Finney
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Presbyterian evangelist—Rochester area
Part of religious revival movement-2nd Great
Awakening
Preaches that everyone has power to chose
a godly life
Massive conversions
Fertile ground
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Rochester was canal boomtown
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Experiencing growing pains of rapid economic
development
Middle class felt it was losing control
Expectations and ethical behavior of revival
Protestantism provided structure to community
Provided sense of identity and purpose.
“Save the World” Crowd
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Once converted, need to share the vision
Could not rest until nation conformed to the
Christian values.
Inspired to crusade against social and
political institutions that failed to live up to
standards of Christian perfection
Two-Edged Sword
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Positives
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Imposed a new order and cultural unity on
unstable communities
Negatives
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Inspired to variety of radical movements that
threatened to undermined established institutions
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abolitionism
Temperance Movement
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Per capita consumption almost triple what it is today.
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Alcoholism almost epidemic proportions.
Reformers viewed as threat to morality.
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Crime, vice, disorder
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Poor and working classes
Threat to family
Women played vital role in movement
American Temperance Society
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Very successful—50% reduction in consumption
State Prohibition laws
Asylum Movement
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Some elements beyond help by home and school
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Believed reform and rehabilitation were possible in a
carefully controlled environment
State supported prisons, asylums and poorhouses
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Criminals, lunatics and paupers
Auburn Prison-model prison
Dorothea Dix—worked to improved conditions in
prisons, hospitals and poorhouses.
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Very effective
Education Reform
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Move toward taxed funded state-supported
schools
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Regional in success
Horace Mann—Massachusetts
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Restore equality to a fractured society
Bring children of all classes closer together
Character-building as important as 3 R’s
Highly structured environment
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Preparation for industrial life
1st real career opportunity for women
Anti-Slavery Movement
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Anti-slavery movement had its roots in
religious reform movements
Believed slavery ran contradictory to Bible
and the Declaration of Independence
Colonization Movement
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1st step in anti-slavery
American Colonization Society
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Liberia—colony in Africa
Belief that racism too deeply rooted in America
Only 20,000 American blacks migrated
Most Blacks opposed
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Equality, not deportation
Many 2nd or 3rd generation
Free Blacks
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By 1830, over 50 black abolitionist societies
existed in the North
David Walker-Appeal to the Colored Citizens
of the World
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Uses political ideals of nation to criticize slavery
Encouraged slave rebellion
Creates great fear in South
Dies mysteriously
Abolitionist Movement
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Rejected gradual emancipation, demanded
immediate abolition.
Perfecting American society meant rooting
out racism in all forms.
William Lloyd Garrison— The Liberator
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Newspapers, speeches, mass mailings, petition
drives
Southern reaction-toughened laws regarding
slave behavior
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Spread rapidly through the North in the
1830’s
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Development of print technology and literacy
Language was deliberately provocative
Believed by southerners to spark a slave
revolt
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Nat Turner Rebellion-1831
Despite militant language, rejected violence as a
means of ending slavery
Nat Turner Rebellion-1831
Women’s Movement
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Women found opportunity in the field of social
reform
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Generally excluded from political activity
Most came from middle class-time and energy to
devote to causes
Feminism
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Much of the grassroots support of
abolitionism came from Northern women
Came to realize their own subordination in
society
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Applied the doctrine of universal freedom and
equality to the status of women.
Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott
Raised the issue of women’s suffrage for the
1st time
Declaration based of Declaration of
Independence
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“Either the theory of our government was false or
women have the right to vote.”
Utopianism
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Amid political activism and reform fervor, some
chose to escape into utopian communities and new
religions.
Reform enthusiasm reflected in term “Burned-Over
District”
Vast variety beliefs developed or nurtured in the
Genesee region-Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists,
Shakers, Oneida Collective, Spiritualist Movement,
and numerous socialist communal groups.
More interesting Millerites
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World ending October 22, 1843